Welcome to our “Oldie but Goodie” month at The Perusalist Society where we are discussing “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg.
Allen Ginsberg
As there are numerous editions, we won’t be linking to where you can purchase a copy. We will also be keeping our introduction brief as Ginsberg is so well-known, but here are some key facts:
*Allen Ginsberg worked on drafts of “Howl” mid-1954 to 1955, including many references and allusions to other poets, friends, and real life events.
*Howl and Other Poems was published in 1956 in London. Shortly thereafter, it was seized by customs and subjected to a court trial based on charges of obscenity. Defended by nine literary experts made up of fellow poets and professors, the charges were dropped when California State Superior Court Judge Clayton Horn ruled that the poem had “redeeming social importance.”
*For all things Ginsberg, visit allenginsberg.org. They have an extensive biography.
You may listen to Allen Ginsberg reading “Howl” below:
Discussion Questions:
*What do you most like about “Howl”; what do you least like about it? Do you have a favorite section?
*”Howl” was greatly influenced by William Carlos William’s use of rhythm based on actual speech. Ginsberg said, “I took out little four-or-five line fragments that were absolutely accurate to somebody’s speak-talk-thinking and rearranged them in lines, according to the breath, according to how you’d break it up if you were actually to talk it out…” How do you feel about Ginsberg’s breathy metering?
*For those familiar with Ginsberg, how does “Howl” compare to Ginsberg’s later work? Which do you prefer?
*What does “Howl” mean to you as a reader/poet/citizen/etc?
The Perusalist Society 
This was my first time reading “Howl” – my first time really reading any Allen Ginsberg except maybe some quotes or the stray shorter poem, an admission I’m entirely ready to be stoned by the literary community for – and it really made me a believer in Allen Ginsberg. Often I don’t enjoy the quintessential American poets and poems, feeling that they’re over-rated. I didn’t find this to be the case with Howl. As William Carlos Williams discusses in the foreword of my copy, Ginsberg managed to take a lot of “horrors” and present them with both gritty realism, and a fine tuned sense of wit and humor. I wasn’t actually expecting “Howl” to humor, I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, I should have written that down before reading it, but it was something along the lines of horror, despair, and a very niche ode for an aging gay generation. “Howl” was so much more than that for me. Consequently,
I have a hard time picking out favorite parts from the poem, but overall, I’d have to say section III. I love it’s direct intimacy.
I read the entirety of Howl and Other Poems, and I must say that I’m glad “Howl” came first. Put into perspective, I didn’t have a least favorite part of the poem because I feel like it is far superior to the rest of the book; I wouldn’t recommend a full read to anyone who wasn’t a true beat fan. It was closer to what I was expecting prior to reading “Howl” and I’d rather pick up my d.a. levy book to reread than the “other poems.” While the breathy formatting worked for me in “Howl,” in the latter poems it felt more sloppy and I sometimes couldn’t really figure out what it was he meant to say because there was so much tucked into each page’s real estate. Overall, they seemed less purposeful. As I haven’t read an other Ginsberg, I’m not sure which reflects more on the rest of his work – “Howl” or these “other poems” – but they do have me weary.